Wedding Reception Forum

Break between ceremony and reception

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Re: Break between ceremony and reception

  • We're having our wedding on a Friday. Granted, it is not at a church, it is all at one venue.

    6pm: ceremony
    6:30pm: cocktail hour
    7:30-8:30pm: dinner
    8:30-11:30pm: dance

    Wedding Black & White, Sepia
  • Yes weddings are one day. But you can bet your ass that your friends and family will remember and talk about your "one day" for a long time. Especially if you do rude ass things like having long, un-hosted gaps.

  • Majelin86 said:




    Majelin86 said:

    We had a gap and it was fine. Don't listen to the people who make it sound like it's the end of the world. We didn't have many people from out of town, so most people could go home (where we live there's always a gap between ceremony & reception, so friends get together at someone's house & have some drinks before cocktail hour). The people from out of town either chose to be hosted at my in-laws place (food & drinks there) or stay at their room in the hotel, it was their choice (again not many out-of-towners). We also gave suggestions of things to do in the gap if they chose to do that instead.

    I personally wouldn't worry too much about it, although our wedding was pretty laid-back. People can fill 2 hours of their day, they are capable of finding things to do (after all, they are adults).

    Our ceremony was at 2:30-3:00, cocktail "hour" (it was a half hour) was 5:30-6:00, dinner at 6:00, speeches & dancing afterwards. It went until 1am. People were not obligated to stay, if they wanted to leave they could (some of the older people did) but we have some partiers in our family/friends so a lot of people were there until the end.


    Says the person who had 8 "speeches" for 30 minutes....

    Gaps are rude. Period. 

    It really is laughable how seriously some of you take weddings....it's one day!


    It's rather laughable that you DON'T take your guests and their time seriously.

  • gaps are very rude. we planned on getting married at my fiances church but on a saturday at a catholic church their cut off time was 1pm our venues evening receptions start at 7. there was no way it would work his priest had the nerve to tell him take your guests to the shoreline which is 45 minutes away and entertain them for 5 hours he said r u serious. then he asked him can we do it after last mas and he said no i have to eat dinner. so we are doing it my church armenian orthodox with a 5:00 ceremony till 6ish then reception at 7 after receving line and everything else and travel to venu it will be around 7 
  • OliveOilsMomOliveOilsMom member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited November 2013
    kitty8403 said:

    Kitty and afaber, Just because your friends and family were rude to have gaps in their weddings, doesn't make it ok for you to do so too.  I had a Catholic wedding and purposely held it on a Friday so that we could avoid the gap and still have the "dinner" styled recpetion.  My sister also just had a Friday wedding, and there was about an hour of gap between her ceremony and reception.  However, my parents hosted all guests at their home in between so that no guests were left sitting in their car or twiddling their thumbs waiting for the reception to start.  Gaps are avoidable if you plan correctly. 

    The one way to avoid a gap is to only book a reception venue that will be able to accomodate your needed start time.  I know the Church can be inflexible on times, but there are lots of venues that will accomodate different start times.

    @oliveoilsmom (eta tag) Please reread my comment. I did not say gaps were acceptable or recommend the OP keep her gap. I was responding to Tammy's point about how long a wedding reception should be. And I do stand by my statement that I personally have zero issues with an all-day (gapless) wedding, but that others with more pressing commitments might find something scheduled from, say, 3-11 pm problematic.
    My apologies @kitty8403 I saw you were in the "minority" and thought you didn't care about gaps between ceremonies and receptions.
  • You had a gap and it was fine? According to whom? You? Or your friends and family who were too polite to say otherwise?
    What did you think would happen if you walked up to a group of internet strangers and told them to get shoehorned by their lady doc?~StageManager14
    image
  • I agree- get rid of the gap. Move up your ceremony time to before the cocktail hour, or be prepared to host something in that two hour gap and move dinner up. Be prepared that guests will leave before 12:30 if the ceremony starts at 1pm.

    However, I don't see any issue with the length of your reception itself. This time length is common to all the weddings I've been to, cocktail hour starts at 4 or 5pm, dinner followed by dancing, reception ends around 12-1 am. Guests are always free to leave when they like. 
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